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Report - Extwistle hall ,worsthorne burnley august 2014

Regular User

I first urbexed this way back in 1997 before I even knew what urbexing was , we were on a hike over the moor top reservoirs and stumbled across it perched high up on the valley top what a sight it was it was just begging us (me n my mate) to go and have a look.

it was in a bad way still water tight but very derelict entry was gained trough a small window in what would of been the larder at the back of the kitchen , a full degree in contorsionism was needed but we got in.

fast forward 17 years and I found my self once again on the same moor looking at the same hall and trying to get in the same entrance but it was boarded up scaffold now adorned the outside , the roof was off most of the building , the servants quarters had virtually collapsed, the interior was totally a no go floors were ripped upupper floors had fallen through years of weathering had finally taken its toll

a little history

In 1190, Richard Malbisse, a Norman baron, was in possession of Extwistle, but later it became the property of the Kirkstall and Newbo abbeys. It was subsequently leased to John Parker of Monk Hall, and Richard Towneley. On the dissolution of the monasteries in 1537 it was acquired by William Ramsden, and then resold to Robert Parker. Standing high on Extwistle Moor roughly halfway between Haggate and Worsthorne, Extwistle Hall was built in the 16th century in the Tudor style, and another wing was added later. The Parker family gained prominence in local affairs, and two of its members became sheriffs of the county. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I the dubious sport of bullbaiting was at its height and a bullring was situated in the vicinity of the hall. The bullstone, a bulky piece of millstone grit is now built into a nearby wall.

There is little doubt that Edmund Spenser made the journey from nearby Hurstwood to witness the sport, and a verse from "The Faerie Queen" lends credence to this fact.

"Like a wylde bull that, being at a bay,

Is bayted of a mastiffe and a hound,

Any a curre-dog, that doe him sharpe assay

On every side, and beat about him round".

The Parker family lived at the hall for about 200 years, and it was a curious but tragic accident that severed their association with Extwistle. On Thursday, March 17th, 1718, Captain Robert Parker went out shooting on a day that turned out to be wet and stormy. Consequently at the end of the day's sport he returned to the house thoroughly drenched with rain. He removed his greatcoat and laid it in front of the fire to dry. Unfortunately, he had omitted to remove his powder flask that still contained a large quantity of gunpowder and the result was that an explosion took place. Captain Parker, along with two of his daughters ,Mary Townley and Betty Atkinson, and a child, were seriously injured, and there was considerable damage to the dining room in which the accident happened, and two other rooms were set on fire. Unfortunately, Captain Parker succumbed to his injuries and died a month later. After this tragedy the family moved to another residence, Cuerden Hall, and the old house at Extwistle appears to have been abandoned to dilapidation, although part of it was occupied as a farmhouse. A more unlikely tale records that the same Captain Parker, when returning from a Jacobite meeting late one evening, saw a goblin funeral procession pass through the gate at the top of Netherwood Fields.

The ghostly cavalcade passed of on in deep silence, a train of little men bearing the coffin, on top of which, as it passed, he saw his own name inscribed. In 1902, in a lecture to the Burnley Literary and Scientific Club, Mr. Tattersall Wilkinson, the sage of Roggerham, said: "In bygone days it was a generally accepted superstition that the devil could be raised by reciting the Lord's Prayer backwards, and woe betide the raisers who did not manage to give him a task he could not do. It is said that some country people raised his satanic majesty at Lee Green, near Extwistle. In this instance he accomplished every task put before him. Terror and dismay filled the minds of the unlucky bumpkins as the time was fast drawing nigh when he would claim his recompense. At this awful moment they bethought themselves to fetch a priest from Towneley, who arrived just in the nick of time when the devil vanished in a flash of lightning at the sight of his mortal enemy, who duly laid the foe of man with bell and book at the foot of Lee Green Scar, where he rests till this day. Sadly this once fine hall is now in decay, if nothing is done, and done quickly it will be lost forever.

Regular User

yeh I know these are old urbexes when I first got mu camera and editing suite so was a little noob on editing effectively not to worry my latest stuff is a millin miles from these in fact im out this afternoon on another urbex to an old farm